Zaragoza: Firefighting crews flying out of this Aragonese city leaned on European aircraft through a punishing August, and the money that keeps those aircraft in the air now reaches its decisive stage. Members of the European Parliament’s environment and public health committees are set to fix their position this month on the regulation rebuilding civil protection funding for 2028 to 2034, a file the European Commission tabled in July 2025 and Council working parties revisited on 7 and 8 September 2026.

The text merges health emergency preparedness and response into the Union Civil Protection Mechanism and repeals Decision 1313/2013/EU. It carries 10.7 billion euro. That single envelope replaces roughly 3.6 billion euro allocated to the mechanism in the current period and about 1.7 billion euro earmarked separately for health crisis preparedness.

The European Court of Auditors got to the file first and did not hide its discomfort. In Opinion 06/2026, published in February, the auditors said the Commission never explained how it split the envelope between civil protection and health emergencies, nor how it would divide money between prevention, preparedness and response. They also found no cost analysis behind the 10.7 billion euro figure.

Their objections run further than arithmetic. The auditors identified no clear coordination provisions between the civil protection and health components, flagged an overlap risk with other funding instruments that could produce double funding, and noted that the proposal stretches reporting cycles from three years to five while the regulation on serious cross-border health threats still runs on three.

The proposed crisis coordination hub drew similar scepticism. The Commission maintains that the hub would work alongside the existing Emergency Response Coordination Centre rather than replace it, yet the auditors judged the legislative text too vague to carry that intention.

In crisis situations, clear provisions on coordination and responsibility among stakeholders are essential.

That warning, from the European Court of Auditors in Opinion 06/2026, sits alongside a request the Court rarely needs to make: it asked lawmakers to write its audit rights explicitly into the new regulation, because the proposal widens the use of financing not linked to costs.

Leire Pajin of the Socialists and Democrats steers the file for the environment committee, with Aurelijus Veryga of the European Conservatives and Reformists leading for the public health committee. Their draft report reached members in March, and the committee vote has sat in the September slot since the summer.

The numbers that frame the argument are blunt:

• 10.7 billion euro proposed for the mechanism and health preparedness across 2028 to 2034
• 3.6 billion euro allocated to the mechanism in the 2021 to 2027 period
• 58 activations of the mechanism during 2024 alone
• 12 firefighting aircraft and 5 helicopters ordered for the rescEU fleet

Background explains why the Commission asked for so much more. The mechanism answered floods, wildfires, the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East and tropical cyclone Chido across a single year, and each activation draws on capacities that member states also need at home. Brussels responded by building reserves the Union owns outright.

That reserve is arriving slowly. Romania received the first rescEU helicopter in January 2026 and flew it through this year’s wildfire season. Twelve firefighting planes destined for Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia and Greece, together with five further helicopters, will not begin reaching their bases until early 2028, which is the year the new budget starts.

The merger with health preparedness carries its own history. Parliamentarians have already objected to repealing the EU4Health programme and grouping health inside a European Competitiveness Fund alongside biotechnology, agriculture and the bioeconomy, and several have demanded a ring-fenced health budget instead. The Commission’s legislative proposal would move EU4Health crisis preparedness work into the civil protection framework, which is precisely the transfer the auditors want documented before governments sign it off.